Spring 2023
Basic Journalism in the Digital Age
June Carolyn Erlick MSJ, Publications Director, David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, and Editor-in-Chief, ReVista: Harvard Review of Latin America, Harvard University
This course equips students with an understanding of the principles and practices of journalism: how to recognize good stories, gather facts through skillful interviewing and research, develop sources, craft welcoming leads and satisfying endings, and create news and feature articles that inform and engage readers. The course emphasizes the time-honored skills of reporting and writing, which provide the foundation of journalism in any age, and which are of particular value in an era when journalism's ability to uncover and convey the truth is under assault.
Prerequisites: A college-level writing course.
Spring 2023
Proseminar: Introduction to Graduate Studies in Journalism
Sallie Martin Sharp PhD, Editor and Journalist
This graduate proseminar introduces students to the fundamentals and practices of journalism at the graduate level research, interviewing, reporting, and writing by exposing them to a variety of reporting assignments. Students learn how to construct a lead as well as how to structure a story. They experience the difference between a feature story and a news story by having to write them both.
Prerequisites: A satisfactory score on the mandatory test of critical reading and writing skills or a B or higher grade in the alternate expository writing course.
Fall 2022
Proseminar: Introduction to Graduate Studies in Journalism
Hannah Rosefield AM, MA, Preceptor in Expository Writing, Harvard University
This graduate proseminar introduces students to the fundamentals and practices of journalism at the graduate level research, interviewing, reporting, and writing by exposing them to a variety of reporting assignments. Students learn how to construct a lead as well as how to structure a story. They experience the difference between a feature story and a news story by having to write them both.
Prerequisites: A satisfactory score on the mandatory test of critical reading and writing skills or a B or higher grade in the alternate expository writing course.
Spring 2023
Essentials of Editing
Christina Thompson PhD, Editor, Harvard Review, Harvard College Library - Laura Healy MA, Editor and Literary Translator
This course offers an overview of editing theory and practice for journalists and others in writing professions. Topics to be covered include line editing, copyediting, common syntactic and grammatical pitfalls, word choice, paragraph structure, clarity, and concision. The emphasis is on learning to identify and correct errors that commonly appear in professional writing. Students may not receive degree credit for this course if they have previously completed EXPO E-160 or EXPO E-170.
Spring 2023
The Constitution and the Media
Allan A. Ryan JD, Director of Intellectual Property, Harvard Business School Publishing
This course examines the concept of freedom of the press the basis for it and the restrictions on it in the United States. We begin by examining the concept of free speech and free press as used in the First Amendment of the US Constitution and trace its historical development to the present. We discuss the ways the Supreme Court has addressed three contentious press issues: the conflict between disclosure and national security (for example, the Pentagon Papers case); the defamation of public figures in news reporting (New York Times Co. v. Sullivan); and reporters' shield laws and the limits of the journalist's privilege to keep sources confidential. We also examine the constitutional basis for governmental regulation of broadcast content, and the interplay (or tension) between cyberspace and freedom of the press (for example, the 2011 Wikileaks controversy).
January 2023
First-Person Journalism
Martha Nichols MA, Founder and Publisher, Talking Writing Magazine
First-person journalism is an exciting genre that combines a personal perspective with solid research and observations of the larger world. This intensive January session course emphasizes both long and short formats from topical features to investigative reports to book-length works of first-person journalism. It underscores the difference between journalism and creative nonfiction, and the way those two genres often merge. Students do a lot of writing and get practice pitching ideas to editors. For a final project, students have the option of producing several short pieces or one long work of first-person journalism.
Prerequisites: Experience with journalism and other forms of nonfiction writing is helpful but not required.
Fall 2022
Feature Writing
Matthew T. Teague Contributing Writer, The Atlantic Magazine and National Geographic Magazine - Patricia M. Bellanca PhD, Head Preceptor in Expository Writing, Harvard University
This course teaches the craft of feature writing, focusing on the development of human-interest reporting techniques that lead to stories that sing with rich detail and narrative style. Compelling stories introduce a conflict that finds resolution. They answer complicated questions through immersion into a subject that deserves time and careful attention. Descriptive scenes, intriguing characters, and active language move the story forward. Students complete weekly assignments that include short, postcard-style dispatches and magazine-length features. Readings include features from writers who invented and continue to shape the form, from Ida B. Wells to Joan Didion, Tom Wolfe to Tom Junod, and David Foster Wallace to Pam Colloff.
Prerequisites: An introductory journalism course, some journalism experience, or permission of the instructor.
Spring 2023
Feature Writing
Kim Cross MA, Author
Feature writing combines the literary craft of fiction with the fact-gathering skills of the journalist, historian, and documentary filmmaker. The best feature stories are both timely and timeless, using a narrative as a vehicle to touch upon something expansive, some universal truth or subtle meaning. Feature stories can take many forms, but in this course we focus on two: a reported personal essay and a third-person narrative. Both stories range from 2,000 to 4,000 words, and a sequence of weekly writing exercises (ungraded but required) build up to both. Students learn the publishing process from pitch to publication, with emphasis on immersion reporting, interviewing, story structure, editing, and fact-checking. Students also learn organizational techniques essential for stories with many sources and tools that enable them to reconstruct scenes they are not able to witness as a writer. The end goal of this course is to complete and polish two feature stories to submit to a target publication.
Prerequisites: An introductory journalism course, some journalism experience, or permission of the instructor.
Fall 2022
Community Journalism
Matthew Hay Brown MS, Americas Editor, The Washington Post
This course focuses on covering the news that is often of the most interest and greatest consequence to readers: events, developments, and challenges in the places where they live. We operate in the manner of a newsroom: students, working in their own communities, report and write on local government, schools, business, crime, culture, people, and life. Then, as a class, we critique the work. We discuss the enduring role of community journalism in a changing media landscape, study exemplary pieces, and meet with working journalists. Students get practical guidance on developing story targets, identifying outlets, and pitching for professional publication.
Fall 2022
News Reporting and Writing
Ana L. Campoy Thompson MA, Deputy Editor, Global Finance and Economics, Quartz
In this changing media landscape, a journalist has no choice but to become a jack of all trades and to develop capabilities to be able to work on various media platforms. This fast-paced course teaches students to master the fundamentals of news writing and reporting for a variety of media. Students learn to think, observe, and ask questions like career journalists while developing the skills needed to shift seamlessly from writing for traditional news publications to updating web sites or tweeting. The course stresses accuracy and fact-checking as well as the importance of reporting a balanced story.
Prerequisites: Basic journalism course or the equivalent.
Spring 2023
Race, Media, and News Writing
Austin B. Bogues BA, Commentary Editor, USA Today
This course examines the role race plays in current events and news writing. Students read a variety of opinion and news reporting pieces, and develop multiple original reporting pieces involving issues of race, race relations, and demographics in the United States. The course also brings in guest speakers to discuss reporting on race.
Prerequisites: An introductory journalism course, some journalism experience, or permission of the instructor. Students need to have standard reporter gear including smartphones, laptops, notebooks, and pens or other camera gear in order to produce multimedia pieces.
Fall 2022
The Art and Craft of Interviewing
Al Powell ALM, Senior Science Writer, Harvard Gazette
This course on interviewing is intended to help beginning journalists, bloggers, social media professionals, and public relations professionals conceive, set up, and execute interviews that provide the foundation for an engaging and informative article, blog post, podcast, or video feature. The course includes a review of effective interviews, such as Katie Couric's 2008 interview with then-vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, which altered how Palin was viewed by the public, and the work of famed radio journalist Studs Terkel, whose ability to extract and portray ordinary people's stories led to his being awarded the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. The course covers interview preparation, source selection, conduct of the interview itself, and how to make the highest and best use of the material that sources provide. We also discuss what can go wrong in an interview, how to ask hard questions, when to go off the record, and the ins and outs of difficult interviews. The course expands upon our examination of classic examples with a discussion of interview techniques, exercises to gain effectiveness, and real-world reporting experiences, from which students produce print, audio, or video stories.
Prerequisites: A college-level writing course.
Spring 2023
Magazine Writing
Martha Nichols MA, Founder and Publisher, Talking Writing Magazine
Magazine writing is the home of good storytelling and in-depth feature writing, even as digital media has blurred the lines between news and magazine sites. In this course, students try out different magazine styles and voices, exploring a range of channels (including health and lifestyle, politics, business, and science), with some multimedia options. We delve into the nuts-and-bolts of pitching and publishing magazine articles as a freelancer as well as the many ethical conundrums that have popped up in recent years. Throughout, we return to the question of what it means to be a trustworthy and engaging magazine writer in the digital age.
Prerequisites: An introductory journalism course, journalism experience, or permission of the instructor.
Fall 2022
Podcasting
Robert E. Frederick MS, Digital Managing Editor, American Scientist
The podcasting world includes millions of episodes in over 100 languages. Regularly, news shows top the podcast charts, with journalists talking about their own reported stories. Those journalists who have the skills to tell their stories in a podcasting format are more likely to get greater exposure for their work. In this course, students gain those skills, including interviewing for audio, writing and editing for the ear, and producing podcasts in their entirety. Smaller assignments over the semester scaffold together so the student is prepared to construct a 15-minute podcast of their own by the end of the term. For the first class meeting students should come prepared with a list of three podcast episodes that they enjoy from storytelling podcasts (for example, The Daily, 99% Invisible, or Endless Thread).
Prerequisites: A basic journalism course. The course requires a smartphone, headphones, and access to a basic Mac/Windows computer.
Spring 2023
Podcasting
Iris Adler MA, Audio Journalist and Podcast Consultant
There are more than two million podcasts currently available, and the number of podcasts and the audience for them is growing. It has become essential for journalists to gain the skills necessary to create compelling on-demand content on this platform. In this course, students choose a journalistic topic they would like to explore in a podcast, and they gain the necessary skills to produce it: reporting, audio storytelling, scripting, interviewing, and basic audio production and design. We develop these skills through practice, collaboration, and feedback as well as by listening to and analyzing state-of-the art podcasts, such as S-Town from This American Life and Malcom Gladwell's Revisionist History. Short skill-building assignments culminate in a podcast episode on the topic of the student's choice. During our final class meetings, we explore possibilities for bringing our podcasts to the public.
Prerequisites: Basic journalism course.
Fall 2022
Reporting on Climate Change
Robert E. Frederick MS, Digital Managing Editor, American Scientist
Reporters familiar with how climate change affects our lives have a powerful lens to discover important stories at the local, national, and international level. Through a sequence of assignments, students in this course gain practical reporting experience both on climate change's effects (such as coastal flooding, hurricanes, drought, heat waves, cold snaps, and wildfire) and on societal responses (such as agricultural production, civil engineering, environmental justice, and governmental policy). Students also gain an appreciation for the complexity of climate science itself so as to be able to cover the science responsibly. Increasingly, media outlets are adding climate change beats. This course is designed to help students, science communication professionals, and working journalists deepen their understanding of climate change as well as improve their capacity to tell the important stories that climate change prompts.
Prerequisites: An introductory journalism course, some journalism experience, or permission of the instructor. Prior education in a scientific discipline, although helpful, is not required.
Fall 2022
The Art of the Book Review
Maggie Doherty PhD, Biographer and Critic
Many aspiring writers get their first byline by writing a book review. Many successful writers continue to write book reviews throughout their careers. This course prepares students to excel at this genre of writing with the goal of having a book review pitch accepted for publication by the end of the course. We discuss the different types of book reviews, from the evaluative review to the round-up review to the review-essay. Students learn how to pitch a book review, how to read a book for the purposes of reviewing it, and how to conduct the outside research necessary for writing a strong review. Course readings include book reviews from a range of publications the New York Times, the New Yorker, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and the London Review of Books, among others to show the different approaches to book reviewing. Guest speakers provide students with insight into how to launch a career as a reviewer and how to use book reviews to develop other writing projects.
Fall 2022
Photojournalism
Samantha K. Appleton BA, Freelance Photojournalist
This course is an introduction to photojournalism for students and professionals. Through weekly photo assignments and critiques, students learn to look critically at images, make photographs that are both creative and rich in content, and produce a body of work through the editing and sequencing of images. The course touches on the historic role of photography through the essential work of photographers like Dorothea Lange, Yoichi Okamoto, and James Nachtwey, but focuses on the process of creating a lasting photograph. By the end of the course, students have a portfolio of images and basic strategies for working in the industry.
Prerequisites: A basic understanding of photography. This course spends only a small amount of time on technical issues.
Spring 2023
Reviewing the Performing Arts
Sarah L. Kaufman MSJ, Chief Dance Critic and Senior Arts Writer, The Washington Post
This workshop course offers practical guidance for journalists who wish to write about the performing arts: drama, music, and dance. We read and analyze works by such critics and essayists as A.O. Scott, Emily Nussbaum, Peter Marks, Zadie Smith, Frank Rich, and Angelica Jade Basti n. Students write film (and other) reviews, opinion pieces, and critical essays while learning to develop their skills in perception, analytical thinking, organization, and persuasiveness. We hear from guest artists and writers, watch recorded performances, and read arts criticism published by a wide range of critics in a variety of media, both legacy and new. Students learn to develop their own distinctive voices while tapping into their critical faculties to analyze the arts in new and convincing ways. Although this is a course for journalists, it is useful for students with an interest in performance or in dramatic writing because it provides them with a new understanding of the view from the other side of the stage and screen.
Fall 2022
Journalism Capstone Project
June Carolyn Erlick MSJ, Publications Director, David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, and Editor-in-Chief, ReVista: Harvard Review of Latin America, Harvard University
The capstone is the culmination of the student's work in the Master of Liberal Arts, journalism program and consists of a series of substantial stories completed in one semester. The capstone generally consists of three to five related pieces, text or multi-media based, in different styles. Text-based projects are generally about 5,000 words; the parameters of projects in other media are determined by the student and the project director together, and are based on the requirements of the story. Past capstone directors have included Boston Globe editors and reporters, former fellows from the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard, and other professionals in the field.
Prerequisites: Registration is limited to officially admitted candidates in the Master of Liberal Arts, journalism. Prospective degree candidates and students with pending admission applications are not eligible. Candidates must be in good academic standing with a minimum of 36 degree-applicable credits completed with required grades. In addition, candidates must submit capstone proposals by June 1. Candidates who do not meet these degree requirements or do not have their capstone proposals approved by the deadline are dropped from the course. See the journalism capstone website for proposal details and approval deadlines.
Spring 2023
Journalism Capstone Project
June Carolyn Erlick MSJ, Publications Director, David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, and Editor-in-Chief, ReVista: Harvard Review of Latin America, Harvard University
The capstone is the culmination of the student's work in the Master of Liberal Arts, journalism program and consists of a series of substantial stories completed in one semester. The capstone generally consists of three to five related pieces, text or multi-media based, in different styles. Text-based projects are generally about 5,000 words; the parameters of projects in other media are determined by the student and the project director together, and are based on the requirements of the story. Past capstone directors have included Boston Globe editors and reporters, former fellows from the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard, and other professionals in the field.
Prerequisites: Registration is limited to officially admitted candidates in the Master of Liberal Arts, journalism. Prospective degree candidates and students with pending admission applications are not eligible. Candidates must be in good academic standing with a minimum of 36 degree-applicable credits completed with required grades. In addition, candidates must submit capstone proposals by October 1. Candidates who do not meet these degree requirements or do not have their capstone proposals approved by the deadline are dropped from the course. See the journalism capstone website for proposal details and approval deadlines.